Viktor Pekar is a Senior Lecturer at the Aston Business School, teaching and supervising student research projects on Business Analytics and related subjects, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, statistical modelling, unstructured data analysis. He holds a PhD in Computational Linguistics, and previously worked as a post-doctoral researcher and a teaching fellow at the universities of Karlsruhe, Wolverhampton, and Birmingham, specialising in artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing, and computational social science. He has over 40 publications at major conferences and journals on AI and NLP, and acts as a journal reviewer and programme committee member in these fields. He has a experience working in NLP/text analytics and machine learning in industry: as a Language Engineer at Oxford University Press, as a Chief NLP Engineer at two start-up companies, Market Sentinel and Knowsis.

Telephone: 0121 204 3488

Email: [email protected]

• Predictive Modelling
• Machine Learning
• Natural Language Processing
• Computational Social Sciences
• Social media analysis

Module developer and module leader:

• Machine Learning for Business Analytics (MSc Business Analytics, BNM872, BNM832, and BNK432)
• Programming for Data Analytics (BSc and MSc Business Analytics, BNM864, BNK464, BN2212)
• Research Design and Practice (MSc Business Analytics, BNM867)
• Dissertation Induction (Online MSc Business Analytics, BDK404)

Teaching assistant on different modules on the UG and PG programmes (Introduction to Business Analytics; Software for Business Analytics; Enterprise, Innovation and New Technology, Crisis Management Analytics, HR Analytics)

Supervision of two DBA dissertations

• Programme Director on MSc Business Analytics (full-time), Business School, Aston University, since 2022
• Programme Director on MSc Business Analytics (online), Business School, Aston University, 2020-2022

2024-Present: Senior Lecturer, Operations and Information Management, Aston Business School, Aston University, Birmingham

2018-2024: Lecturer, Operations and Information Management, Aston Business School, Aston University, Birmingham

2015-2018: Research & Teaching Fellow, Finance Department, Business School, University of Birmingham, Birmingham

2013-2015: Research Fellow, School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham, Birmingham

2012-2013: Chief NLP Engineer, Knowsis Ltd, London

2010-2012: Chief NLP Engineer, Market Sentinel Ltd. London

2008-2010: Language Data Engineer, Academic Division, Oxford University Press, Oxford

2003-2008: Post-Doctoral Researcher. Computational Linguistics Group, School of Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences, University of Wolverhampton

2001-2002: Visiting researcher. Institute of Applied Informatics and Formal Description Methods (AIFB), University of Karlsruhe

Post-graduate certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (Distinction), 2019, Aston University, UK.
PhD, Computational Linguistics, 2000, Bashkir State University, Russia.
MA Applied Linguistics, 1997, Bashkir State University, Russia. 

June 2008 – July 2012: Co-supervisor of Naveed Afzal’s PhD dissertation “Relations Extraction for an E-Learning system in a Biomedical Domain” (main supervisor: R. Mitkov), University of Wolverhampton.
July 2021 – present: Main supervisor of Sven Hirsekorn’s DBA dissertation “Unsupervised machine learning methods in internal audit applications”, Aston University.
Oct 2022 - present: Main supervisor of Renis Onguka’s DBA dissertation “Barriers to Innovation Adoption in Internal Audit: the Case of Big Data Analytics”. Aston University.
June 2023 – present: Co-supervisor of Bakhyt Bakiyev’s PhD dissertation “Extrinsic Plagiarism Detection for the Kazakh Language” (main supervisor: V. Kovatchev), Aston University  and University of Birmingham.

2024-present: Senior Fellow of Advance HE, fellowship reference number: PR294569

Academic Supervisor, Knowledge Transfer Partnership, Aston University & Butlers Farmhouse Cheeses, 2022-present.

Maxwell Fry Fellowship, Business School, University of Birmingham, 2016.

Medici Fellowship, Business School, University of Birmingham, 2005.

EU INTAS Young Scientists Scholarship, 2002.

Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst (DAAD), 2001.